Guide to the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival

Biography

The Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival was established in 2015 as another means for the Cliburn to use its standing and expertise to encourage tomorrow’s great artists, to provide a valuable forum for them to express themselves, and to give them an entrance to the next step of their journeys. Laureates from that first edition include: Alim Beisembayev, Kazakhstan (first prize); Arsenii Mun, Russia (second prize); and Youlan Ji, China (third prize).

The Cliburn Junior will select 24 competitors and 14 non-competing festival participants from around the world to come to Dallas, Texas for its second iteration, May 31-June 8, 2019. Applications are due January 10, 2019.

The Cliburn will provide all travel, as well as lodging on the campus of SMU, where most competition and festival events will take place. In a stunning conclusion, the finalists will perform with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Ruth Reinhardt on June 8 at Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

The 24 competitors will perform for a distinguished international jury, chaired by Alessio Bax (Italy), and including Phillipe Bianconi (France), Sa Chen (China), Angela Cheng (Canada), Valery Kuleshov (Russia), Lowell Liebermann (United States), and Aviram Reichert (Israel). Cash prizes and scholarships total over $40,000 US. All Competition performances will be webcast live and offered on demand.

The Cliburn will offer a variety of events aimed at the artistic advancement of all competitors and participants, including performance opportunities throughout the community, workshops, symposia, chamber music collaboration, masterclasses, and more. Non-competitor festival participants will also receive private lessons.